In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling, Toronto Star sports writer Dave Perkins spoke out in defense of the IOC. Perkins wrote, “the one thing for which the IOC deserves credit … is the inclusion of women’s sports in the Games.” He also noted that women’s hockey is “one of the least competitive sports on the Olympic calendar,” and features an unbalanced roster of teams dominated by the U.S. and Canada. Perkins suggests that the IOC’s determination to hold off on allowing women’s ski jumping could have been influenced by the women’s hockey situation.

According to ESPN, the IOC determined that the 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games, an inaugural event being held in Innsbruck, Austria, would include a female ski jumping competition. The IOC has also said the 2013 Sochi Winter Olympics are not out of the question for women’s ski jumpers.

Jacques Rogge, president of the IOC, explained earlier in December that female ski jumpers simply did not meet Olympic standards. He noted that there are more than 2,500 male registered ski jumpers, and only 164 registered women. Furthermore, said Rogge, only 15 of the 164 women are “technically very able” ski jumpers.

According to ESPN, Rogge said, “[w]e did not want the medals to be watered down by too little a pool of very good jumpers.”

In November, a court of appeal upheld a previous ruling by the British Columbia Supreme Court, which said the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) had not “discriminated against the women on the basis of their sex,” according to the Vancouver Sun. The ruling also said that the IOC would not be held to the standards of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Anita DeFrantz, chair of the IOC's Women and Sports Commission, called the situation “a textbook case of discrimination,” according to Christa Case Bryant in The Christian Science Monitor. One of the IOC’s arguments for not allowing women’s ski jumping is that the field is too small, and not as competitive as that of sports like alpine skiing or figure skating.

But other women’s events “with weak fields,” including bobsleigh and ski cross, have recently been added to the Olympic Games roster, suggesting “the issue is not as clear-cut as either side asserts,” according to Bryant.